To the Chicago-based commenters: if there's anything I can do to be helpful before I leave, email me at andrew@ycombinator.com. I'm happy to hang out and give "advice" if you'll make the haul up to Evanston and help me assemble a ping pong table or cat habitrail or whatever my loser project of the week is.

Whoever said Chicago's challenge is one of talent network effects, I agree (although it depends on the nature of your company - Chicago is great for Groupon). I'd love to help solve it, but not enough to endure the handicap. Building a company is hard enough as is. And if you're really intent on self-inflicted pain for your startup, there are far more interesting ways to do it.

I think maybe he asked PG to wipe his previous comments or something. He had a series of Ask HN's and other comments from way back when he was just starting The Point, asking for advice on various things. Unfortunately, his posts didn't get much of a response at the time, but it was actually really inspiring to read after the fact and see him facing a lot of the same startup issues other HNers post about every day.

Edit: since the downvotes from assumed sycophants are pouring in, I'm not afraid to defend my position: the story of the Groupon pump and dump is well-known here and criticism has always been widely upvoted. But once the man is right here in our midsts you retreat. This is essentially the same behavior we see over and over of society promoting the psychopath. Others might have short memories but I don't.